Vampire Knight - Blood and Bullets

Phew! I've finished reading what has been published of Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino and I have to say that it's one of those rare mangas which I will never get tired of reading. It combines two of my favourite things, vampires and romance, so I had feeling that I'd end up being quite taken with it when I first started downloading it.

If you haven't read or heard of it, I'll summarize it for you so that you get the jist. The story mainly revolves around Yuki Cross who acts as one of the prefects and guardians for the Cross Academy. The Cross Academy, which is chaired by her adoptive father, is split into two classes; the Night Class and the Day Class. The Night Class are an elite group of students who are also absolutely gorgeous, which sends the Day Class into a panicked frenzy whenever they see them. This is where Yuki comes in. Along with her fellow prefect, Zero Kiriyuu, she must ensure that the change over of the Day Class and Night Class happens with as little interaction between the two classes as possible. Why must she do this? Because everyone one of the students in the Night Class is a vampire. It is Yuki's job to make sure that no incident arises which would alert the Day Class to the Night Class' true nature. She is one of the guardians of this secret.

While this may look like a very simple looking story, you'll find that it quickly gets quite complicated as the various characters all have their own secrets that they can't tell anyone about. While it is essentially a shoujo manga, it stands above the rest in that there is one hell of a plot. Everything is premeditated and theres a great deal of suspense. It's because of this that I think that I admire this manga so much.

The artwork is relatively well done. The expressions of each of the characters are detailed, with the characteristically expressive eyes and the highly detailed costume decoration which is usual in Hino's works. While there is often little in the way of background drawing, with gaps often being filled with blotting effects and etchings, it works well in contrasting the beautifully detailed drawings. One of the draw backs however is that the only way you can distinguish the individual characters is by their hairstyles alone, which made me a little confused when it came to the characters of Aidou and Kain as they kind of look similar.
However, regardless of that fact, this manga is very pleasing in an aesthetic sense.

The relationships between the characters is also another thing that attracted me to this manga. While at first it seems like Yuki is destined to be Kaname, you see that her relationship with Zero evolves to something much deeper when she allows him to bite her in order to inhibit his impending insanity. She begins to question what Zero is to her and it progresses to the point where Zero nearly kisses her (KYaahHH! XD). However, while her relationship with Zero changes, you also see Kaname coming to terms with his own feelings for love for Yuki, and he is the first to confess these to her. Oooh... it makes me go all goo-ga just thinking about it. I really am starting to resemble Renge from OHSHC... -.-;;

There are so many swoon-worthy moments in this series which is the main reason why I'm suggesting it to all of those people out there who enjoy romance stories. One prime example of this is when Zero hugs Yuki just as their study session ends and this is the point in the story where I finally realise that Zero feels more for Yuki than I had originally thought. Another point which will probably make fan-girls go all squee (including myself) is when Kaname asks Yuki if she wants to become a vampire and live for eternity by his side.

Well I'll probably stop reviewing now because I really could go on forever, but as I suggest earlier, if you haven't read this yet then you should at least read the first volume and see what you think. (A good place to download this is at MangaTraders ;))

Over and out!

(PS. I apologise for how romance-based my reviews are becoming, but I become a bit of a nutcase when it comes to romance. X) )